Hot kayak fishing on the lower Colorado River continues literally and figuratively. The largemouth bass fishing has been pretty good, but with daytime temperatures near 100°F and 70°F at night, it’s getting uncomfortably warm.
The humidity rarely goes above 15-20%. There is very little shade save for the vegetation around the lakes and river banks. There’s usually mosquitoes closer to the water.
The situation here is very similar our old days of chasing waves in Baja. The land is baked and dry right to the water’s edge, the water holds all the life.
We are prepared and equipped to handle the heat, at least to a point, depending on how good the fishing is. The only thing keeping us off the water is the desert wind. Even when there is 15mph wind in the afternoon, it can be calm for a few hours in the early morning. That’s when we’ve been doing the most fishing. With the wind and heat, night fishing has been the best time of day.
I’m not wearing a sweatshirt because it’s cold. I put it on and spray it with insect repellant to try and keep the mosquitoes from having me for breakfast. It’s too bad all I have from the night fishing are the photos of nice largemouth bass. I’ll see about a better camera setup for night videos.
As soon as the sun appears over the low desert terrain, the temperature starts to climb.
The blinding sun makes the fishing more challenging.
The cool and calm mornings around sunrise were the best time for kayak fishing.
The cool mornings don’t last long so it’s a race against the hot desert sun for a couple more fish on the way back to the launch.
On the way back to the launch beach, we saw we were not the only ones doing a little early morning fishing
Our great kayak fishing season here on the Colorado River is quickly coming to a close. We hope to get a few more days fishing in before we have to leave so check back soon.